Shooter Jennings The Gamer

Share.

Country rebel loves his DS, Xbox, and adventure games.

By Spence D.

You wouldn't know it to look at him. Hell, you wouldn't know it to listen to his music (his recently released country/rock kicker Put The O Back In Country). Then again looks and sounds are often deceiving. To wit, Shooter Jennings, the only son of country music outlaw Waylon Jennings, is something of a videogame nut. "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Halo 2, that's all we play," Jennings says when asked what games he is currently engaging in with the rest of his band. "I mean on our bus we got a couple of those DS's so we try to play Metroid Prime Hunter where we're all sittin' around just killin' each other&#Array;well just me and the guitar player. Nobody else likes videogames in the band except me and the guitar player."

Yes, Shooter and his axe slinger also enjoy partaking in the glory requited to high profile sports games, as well. "We play Madden like it's going out of style," he says. "But that sucker'll wear your hand out." He trails off, mentioning the possible onset of carpel tunnel syndrome in his right hand before returning the conversation to games. "Oh I love all those adventure kind of games. I even play all those Final Fantasy games and all that sh@t. Resident Evil is awesome. Metal Gear Solid 3 is awesome."

In addition to the Nintendo DS, Jennings and his crew also stock their tour bus with Xboxes. "We pretty much always bring an Xbox," he admits. "And now that they're puttin' San Andreas on the Xbox, it kinda was like the deciding factor for us. Halo is why we have the Xbox on the bus, that's why it's our ideal gaming set-up. But we also travel we those little portable Gameboys. We've got two of the DS's because they play the old games and the new sh@t, too."

Jennings' game fetish even crosses over into film in the sense that he's seen most of the old school video game movies like Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter. "You remember when f@#kin' John Leguizamo played Luigi?," he laughs. "And Bob Hoskins. [I believe that's generally regarded] as one of the worst films ever made. That and Street Fighter That was f@#kin' horrible. Whoever's idea it was to put Raul Julia in the role of General M. Bison&#Array;ugh. But I don't know what was worse, though, 'cause then they made a game of that, which was horrible. Street Fighter: The Movie - The Game. Yeah, that was awful."